Category: Painting
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Grumman Widgeon – Part Two – Port and Cheese
I cannot decide now that the Grumman Widgeon is done and sitting on the photo floor, whether I enjoyed myself building it or not. If you go by the mis-fitting engines, nacelles, windscreen, and landing gear, it was a misery. If you looked at the wing, fuselage, and tail assemblies as they mated, it wasn’t…
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Grumman Widgeon – Part One – The Small Goose
The Sherriff’s Mini Cars shelves had some of the best and oddest kit shopping I have been able to do for some time. Stashes had disgorged treasures and/or trash and they were sensibly priced for all that. I have no idea how new the Widgeon is, not how long it may have mouldered on the…
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De Havilland Vampire T.11 – Part Four – Baked Bat
It’s not your eyes. Your eyes are fine. It’s not your computer. You need not re-calibrate it. The scale model Vampire T.11 really looks like that. And its counterpart in the Negev does too. The desert sun has very little air shade, no ground shade, and winds that blast from all directions. The paint that…
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De Havilland Vampire T.11 – Part Three – Do Not Decal
At least do not decal when you can paint. I am in awe of modellers who can make a decal panel lay down over an undulating wing or fuselage and have it come out taut and flat with no silvering or air bubbles. Even more so when the decal involves several panels abutting each other.…
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De Havilland Vampire T.11 – Part Two – Voila
No apologies for going from the bare kit parts to the glued-together carcass…it has been a busy two days. The model building club’s rooms have air conditioning and so does my computer room – I have repaired to them to escape the 40º plus heat in Perth. My workshop goes far above that on a…
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De Havilland Vampire T.11 – Part One – Going Batty
By now you probably feel you have reason to question my sanity – I am starting to build my third De Havilland Vampire in 1:72 scale. One DH.100 as a Canadian museum piece, then a Swiss Vampire with extended nose, and now a two-seat trainer. What is it with these bats? Well, the first was…
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De Havilland DH. 100 Vampire FB.6 – Part Two – Well That Was Fast…
You’ll forgive me for not taking any pictures of the pignose as it was being assembled. Too much was going on in the house at the time. The build was uneventful – thanks to the precision fit of the components hardly any filler was needed. And the tail sections fitted perfectly with no long packing…
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De Havilland DH.100 Vampire – Part Four – Whooooosh
Flying a Vampire must have been an exhilarating experience for pilots who had trained on propeller-driven aircraft. Or perhaps I should say propeller-pulled aircraft…as there were very few pusher planes past the WW1 era. Of course pilots who had flown with twin-engine bombers and other multi-craft would be used to a clear field in front…
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De Havilland DH.100 Vampire – Part Three – Tell Me The Truth, Doc
Don’t sugar coat the pill. Give it to me straight. I can take it. Is the Amodel kit going to go fit together or am I just going to end up sobbing in the corner? Well, actually, the news from Kiev is good. The basic pod of the Vampire goes together exceedingly well. If you…
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Not Quite So Many Paints
Well, another day and another visit… I strolled down the paint aisle today to discover the SMS paints that I had reviewed yesterday gone from the shelves – an empty paint rack with their name on it where they once were. Leading me to a series of speculations: a. Did they not sell? They were…
The Little World 